Week 28-Dec. 17, 2018

Joy of Christmas! 🎄

Merry Christmas fam and friends!!!

The Christmas season is truly a magical time to be a missionary! I am very honored and grateful for this opportunity to share with everyone about Jesus Christ and the reason for the season! 

I am looking forward to our missionary Christmas performance on Sunday and to testify in word and song!  

I am staying in Songshan and my new companion is Sister Hayden! She's absolutely awesome! She is so good at talking to people on the street! People just open up to her right away and always leave with a smile! She came to Taiwan with me (but didnt visa wait so I only saw her a couple times in the MTC and met her in the airport on the way here!) We are learning so much together! It's funny because the elders in our ward have both been out over a year and a few months and seem so old and know what they're doing and then there's us! Haha thank goodness for Google maps and Pleco translations! Sister Hayden lived in Shanghai for 3 years (with Sister Larsen)! She's a fantastic missionary and I'm so excited to learn all I can from her this transfer!

I will also miss Sister Larsen dearly! She was an inspiring trainer and taught me too much to even being to express! She is on to being a Sister Training leader in Taoyuan and will help so many more sisters there as well feel her light and example!

One of my highlights of the week was visiting an older lady in the ward yesterday and singing a couple Christmas hymns with her and praying for her family. The Spirit was so strong and I felt so much of God's love for her. It was a little moment of heaven in the midst of worrying about where we were biking next, if I knew how to get there, if we were gonna be late, if the elders were gonna be waiting for us, what would say/share, if i understood what we talked about in Ward Council, who we needed to contact, etc. The Spirit just helped me push all those thoughts aside for a moment to listen with love to our dear sister and help her feel remembered and heard.

Sister Larsen once told me that missions are like Disneyland: there's a lot of walking and traveling to get one place to another and you see a lot of cool things on the way and do a lot of waiting standing in line and mundane things for the thrill of the 2 minute ride. You go home exhausted, but it was all so worth it for those moments! 

Scripture of the week: 2 Nephi 19:6

"For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder; and his name shall be called, Wonderful, Counselor, The Mighty God, The Everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace."   Christ is the reason for the season, the greatest gift of all, and the Savior of mankind! Merry Christmas! 

Love you all! 

Best of luck with finals, work, etc.!

Sister Jensen 

1. Caroling with the ward at Carrefour! 

2. Caroling to the Huang family 

Week 27-Dec. 10, 2018

Christmas Cheer! 🎄❤🎄

Family and friends!!!

This week has been so crazy! We biked to Neihu to teach a new friend and she's awesome! We had to rush back for English class though and we got lost or stuck a couple times. :P Saturday was super different too because my bike had a super flat tire so we had to walk it to the bike shop in the morning, then ride the MRT to another city for our Christmas choir performance at a huge elementary school. It was super fun because the Taipei English ward put on a huge nativity with lights and a lift for the angels and a real horse and amazing costumes! They performed right after we sang our little program. Sis Larsen and I sang a beautiful song called Candlelight Carol and one of the families that comes to Sis. Larsen's English class came! They have two ADORABLE kids and my highlight of the week was when we were walking back to the bus and Andrew (6) yelled from across the street "Merry Christmas, Sister Larsen!" So cute! 

Another highlight of this week was last night when we got to go to a member's home (3 kids) and meet her friend and her two kids and decorate a little Christmas tree together, sing some hymns, and act out the nativity! Despite the crazy kids running around everywhere and the random screams and rabbit and chaos, the spirit of Christmas was so tangible. 

Also, because Sister Larsen is leaving, we got to eat lunch with a member today and it was so touching to hear her tell her conversion story and how she met missionaries. Because the majority of members here are converts, they treat us missionaries so well and always express so much gratitude for the very small things we do. I felt a lot of hope when she started to tell us a problem she's been having recently, but realized the answer just as she finished telling us! We didn't even have to say anything! She just thanked us for bringing the Spirit that answered her question. Thank goodness this is the Lord's work, because heaven knows I couldn't do this on my own! 

Scripture of the week: Alma 20:26 

"And when he saw that Ammon had no desire to destroy him, and when he also saw the great love he had for his son Lamoni, he was astonished exceedingly, and said: Because this is all that thou hast desired, that I would release thy brethren, and suffer that my son Lamoni should retain his kingdom, behold, I will grant unto you that my son may retain his kingdom from this time and forever; and I will govern him no more." I think it's amazing how much power love has to change people's hearts as it did to King Lamoni's father's in the Book of Mormon. As we show genuine love for others in word and in deed, it truly makes all the difference! Keep lighting the world and choose someone who might be harder to love this week and do something for them with sincere, Christlike love in your heart! God loves you!  Go share that love!

Sending love, hugs, and prayers your way! 

Sister Jensen 

1. Sis Larsen and our advent calendar from the YW 

2 The adorable tree Mom sent!!!

3 Santa hats 

6/7 Christmas performance! and Andrew!

8. Huang family

9/10. Liu family and friends 

Week 26-Dec. 2, 2018

SHARK!🦈🐌🦐🦑🐙

Nihao FamBam!

So many happy emails from y'all this week! Thank you! I love hearing about your lives!

Sounds like you did a LOT of good on your trip Dad! That's so awesome! Way to Light the World! And I'm so impressed you're savvy on Instagram now mom!  I appreciate your love and support! and THANK YOU so much for the Christmas package! Can't wait to open it! Keep pushing through school kiddos! Christmas is almost here!

Dads questions: This is my last full week of training! Crazy! I still have so much to learn! Sis Larsen has been in Songshan for 4 transfers now, about 6 months, so it's pretty certain she's moving out next week and I'll be staying! She will probably become a Sister training leader! 

This week I'm gonna go backwards and start with today :P

Today I ate shark! (and duck, snail, lobster, crab, squid, etc.) The bishop's family gave us coupons to eat at a super fancy buffet today! Shark tastes really strongly of fish and is a little too squishy and slimy for my liking, but no regrets about trying it! Haha Today we also had our final run through of the missionary Christmas program and so almost the whole mission was there! So fun! 

Yesterday felt so weird because it was Sunday but we didnt have church until Stake Conference at 4pm and then we had the recent convert fireside at 7pm. A recent convert from our ward, Jessica, came with us to both which was so so good because we haven't been able to contact her or see her at church in a while! We also sang a quartet of "Oh holy night" Sis Larsen soprano, me alto, and Elder Young bass, Elder Pinnock tenor, and Elder Halverson on the piano! It turned out pretty well! Sis Larsen says her favorite thing to do is winging musical numbers and that's often the case when we sing with other missionaries. Funny story from stake conf, this older lady came in late and sat down next to me. We talked briefly and then about 3 minutes later she started doozing off and kept leaning over on my shoulder, only to wake up slightly, center herself, and fall asleep over on my shoulder again. This happened about 25 times. It took everything in me to not laugh when sis Larsen looked over and saw what was happening! And to add to it all, President Peterson was sitting on the stand directly in my line of vision (and I in his). I don't know if he saw, but it was sure entertaining. 

This week we also had some awesome family home evenings with less active members and part member families. I love them all so much! And we've gotten a couple awesome referrals from it! President wants us to focus on visiting and strengthening members and the youth, asking for referrals, and talking to everyone on the street in between and we are already seeing so many miracles from it! I am so grateful for President Peterson, the inspiration he receives, and his hard work! He is so ambitious and dedicated but also knows how to have fun! Today we saw him on his way to go golfing with the assistants! 

A miracle we saw this week was we went to visit a member a little farther away in Nangang and we really weren't sure what to expect, but we ran into a person, Nikki, we used to teach a while ago, but said she was too busy to meet with us anymore. We got to show her a Taiwanese Light the World video and she agreed to start meeting with us again! She is so sweet and I know the gospel will help her if she chooses to let it! We also had a random guy offer to use his key to let us go on the elevator up to the 19th floor to visit another former person being taught who was miraculously home! So many people helped us out this week! We also met a super sweet lady who feeds all the neighborhood stray cats each night and helped us find a particularly difficult address! 

On Friday night, we had a family home evening with the Zhu family and they brought out their 20 year old turtle! I learned that Sis Larsen LOVES turtles and used to have a turtle collection! It was so fun watching their family start to trust and warm up to missionaries and realize we are all just normal people doing our best to serve the Lord!

Scripture of the week: Alma 37:37

"Counsel with the Lord in all thy doings, and he will direct thee for good; yea, when thou liest down at night lie down unto the Lord, that he may watch over you in your sleep; and when thou risest in the morning let thy heart be full of thanks unto God; and if ye do these things, ye shall be lifted up at the last day." Don't forget to say your prayers and be grateful this week! The simplest things are sometimes the hardest to remember, but they truly can help us be happy and have the strength we need to press forward! I know prayer is so powerful and that God listens to each one, whether 1pm or 1am, aloud or in our hearts, on our knees or on the run. 

Love you all!

Sending hugs and prayers! 

Sister Jensen 

Lunch with Sophia :)

Liu family home evening

Lunch today thanks to Bishop! 

Week 25-Nov. 26, 2018

Magical Miracles

Hey fam and friends!

This week!

So much has happened, so many miracles! Last week we had Zone conference with all the Zones in the mission except Hualien! It was so fun! and they fed us a Thanksgiving feast! It was so good! Costco pumpkin pie is DELICIOUS (though nothing can beat moms cooking!)! We talked all about how faith is in our actions, not the results of our actions. Our faith level is not based on the results we see, but rather in the effort we put in each day. Faith is complete trust in God accompanied by action. At Zone conference, we also got flu shots! They were so efficient, I kind of felt like an animal being branded Haha

Last week we also ate with a member at a fancy hot pot place and Elder Lee made me try a bunch of interesting new foods: ducks blood, a cow tendon, clam, a little octopus, like three different types of squid, etc. It was a good thing they also served unlimited Haagen Daazs ice cream. ;) 

Exchanges were a blast! I went with Sister Meeks this time and she is so genuine and loving in everything she does. Its amazing. We also got to do a musical number all together at their friends baptism that night! Sis Hurst played piano and Sis Larsen, Meeks, and I sang Come Thou Fount/If You Could Hie to Kolob (the version from youtube). It was so fun to participate in such a happy event and the Spirit was abundant. Another miracle this week was we had to choose a place to finish some English class planning at the end of the night, and earlier that day I had thought of this member we wanted to visit but we didnt have a chance. But we prayed about where to go and both thought of our usual Starbucks and just thought it was like a default, but on the way there, we ran into the member! What are the odds? We pass SO many people on our bikes in the middle of Taipei every day, but that night we got to run into that member at the perfect time! God's doing for sure.

Another miracle was we sat next to a member we have never met before in Relief Society Sunday and felt like we needed to talk to her the whole time. So after the prayer, we started a conversation and I didnt really understand what she was saying, but she started crying a little and my companion set up a time to meet with her this week. We met up with her at a McDonald's yesterday and she brought us homemade donuts! She told us her whole life story, about her moving to Taiwan for marriage and meeting missionaries and getting baptized in a month, and her husband's sudden death when he was 30, her family in China, her two kids that are being raised by her husband's parents, the church members that kept her on her feet, etc. and we all cried together. We showed a video about Jesus Christ finding the one lost sheep and she was like I am that sheep. The Spirit touched all of our hearts so much in that noisy McDonald's and our table became a special little bubble of love and hope. The Lord answers prayers in so many ways and we felt so honored and humbled that night to be a small answer to her prayers. 

President has been pushing us to work with the youth once a week and one of the pictures is from a ward FHE where we accidentally matched with each other and some of the youth. ;) 

Finally, we got to go to the temple today and it was so amazing! It was an English session, thank goodness, but the names were all Chinese and we did sealings in chinese! So cool!

Scripture of the week: 3 Nephi 4:31

"And it came to pass that they did break forth, all as one, in singing, and praising their God for the great thing which he had done for them, in preserving them from falling into the hands of their enemies" This week Sister Larsen and I have been trying to focus on always being in the attitude of singing and praising our God (which isn't too hard because we are literally humming or singing like 24/7) but it helps us keep smiling!

Love you all so much! 

Have a great week! 

Sister Jensen 

1/2 Temple day!

3 Ward FHE

4 Han fam FHE

5 Octopus I ate :P

6 Lia and Sophia